Brownies

Now there are a couple of recipes I have which as my close friends will know, I never part with. .. But I've decided to not be so selfish and to share one of my favourite recipes with you: the ultimate brownie recipe.

Most of my recipes are adaptations of others’, such as the flapjack recipe I use which I have adapted from James Martins’ Chocolate and Ginger Flapjacks. The brownie recipe I rely on, but to which I have made a few tweaks to, is Nigel Slater’s. I find that after years of painfully searching for a good brownie recipe that is rich but not too sickly, this one is, as I said mentioned earlier, The Ultimate Brownie recipe!

Brownies

250g dark chocolate

300g sugar

3 eggs

250g butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

60g flour

60g cocoa

Pinch of salt

1) Melt 200g of the chocolate and set it aside to cool

2) Beat the sugar and softened butter together until pale and fluffy.

3) Gradually beat in the eggs one by one (if the mixture starts to curdle add 1 tbsp of flour)

4) Fold in the melted chocolate and vanilla and cut up the remaining 50g into gravel sized chunks and fold

that in as well.

5) Lastly sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder and fold in gently.

6) Pour into a square 23 x 23 cm tin and bake for 35 mins (or until the top has formed a thin crust) at 180C/ fan

160C.

These are best served immediately, if you want them as a dessert, with a melting ball of vanilla ice cream and a rich chocolate sauce made with equal amounts of dark chocolate and cream melted together in the microwave. Or they are best made the day before if to be eaten as a snack or packed in a lunchbox as they tend to keep their shape better when they are a day old.